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Cross-Border Review, European Institute of Cross-Border
EUBORDERSCAPES - Potentials and Challenges
of Evolving Border Concepts
th Framework Programme for Research and Tech-
nological Development, was a four-year research project that tracked and
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capture the opened up possibilities for questioning the rationales behind eve-
ryday border-making by understanding borders as institutions, processes and
emerge through socio-political processes of border-making or bordering that
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tivities of state borders while critically interrogating ‘objective’ categories of
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tions could be uncovered between borders as a ‘challenge’ to national as well
as EU policies and borders as potential elements of political innovation through
project set out to provide a nuanced and critical re-reading and understanding
of borders as resources in terms of the exercise of power, the management of
thus help us interpret tensions as well as points of connection within intercultur-
in the practical consequences of controlling borders through security policies,
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border and visa regimes and immigration policies at the same time that global
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thus focused on the emerging epistemologies of how state borders are per-
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es, such as key academic debates, political discourses, ethnographic research,
media representations and shifting cultural understandings of the construction
between national understandings in terms of demarcations based on ethnic-
project also attempted to illuminate the consequences of restrictive and secu-
Although formal state boundaries often serve as a reference point in discus-
sions of territory, identity and Europe, the project did not focus only on the
project, it became clear that the recent developments have deeply changed
the power of borders by modifying the dialectical relation between the bor-
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mative power of international organizations, including the EU and the power
Shifting conceptions of borders
The project adopted a complex, multidimensional and dynamic concept of
borders, encompassing not simply territorial delineation, but also political, so-
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derscapes’ plays and important role in our conceptualization of border for it
enabling a productive understanding of the processual, de-territorialized and
137
dispersed nature of borders and their ensuing regimes in the era of globali-
viewpoint allowed us to view borders genealogically and to historicize border-
but also to better understand the ambiguity that marks the EU’s engagement
In our case studies, the understanding of borders as lines of division and barri-
the contact aspect of borders was more pronounced in more open and peace-
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neighbourhood countries which agree to cooperate in policing and control of
EU’s external borders and regulation of ‘undesired migrants’ are granted privi-
migrants, including economic migrants from Sub-Saharan Africa as well as the
refugees from the Middle East face severe restrictions in their attempts to reach
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In the post-Soviet cases, the divisive aspects of borders were emphasized and
borders were perceived more as issue of state-building than of cultural divi-
nature of the current borders, dating back to early Soviet border-making, be-
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ible between Central and Eastern European states such as Poland or Hungary
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Changes in the conceptions of borders
were initiated by EU institutions and policies, namely, by the institutional debor-
the external borders of the EU are more susceptible to geopolitical processes
teams noted struggles that consist of strategies of adaptation, contestation
and resistance that challenge the externalization and the top-down geopo-
litical control of EU’s external borders, often perceived through the metaphor
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cess of contestation and challenge the top-down narratives and policies, such
hegemonic borderscape in which migrants engage in performance and rep-
resentation of their in-between identities which challenge notions of nation-
In the post-Soviet states, the impact of the dissolution of Soviet Union still ex-
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bours who used to be part of the Soviet Union have become stronger and
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of sovereignty are more acute, and the EU is blamed for failing to guarantee
and Middle East regions was commented in most national media as an act of
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ern European case, in Poland, the annexation of Crimea by Russia has raised
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hood, the issues of sovereignty are perceived in the context of de-colonization,
and are strongly debated in the cases of Gibraltar and Spanish enclaves of
paradoxically, despite having territorial claims against Spain, Morocco never-
The issue of state sovereignty seems to be more acute in the former Soviet
policy of multi-level and multi-speed reintegration of post-Soviet space, with
most advanced form of such reintegration represented by the Eurasian Eco-
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of post-Soviet countries as constraints on their sovereignty, in both economic
In the case of Israel and Palestine, political problems lie at the very heart of
of occupation in which one side has both sovereignty and control, while the
based on fear of the other, strengthens notions of self-determination and politi-
cal autonomy for both sides, leading to a desire for the construction of borders
based on bilateral agreement rather than the current situation of imposed bor-
The issues of ethnic and national claims dominate border discourses as well as
and Abkhazia in Georgia, and most recently the crisis over Crimea and Eastern
formal borders and cultural and ethnic borders, which can be dated back to the
Stalin’s administrative divisions as well as imperial history of Russian, Hapsburg
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nia has territorial claims towards Turkey; the disputes over Gibraltar and Span-
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tral and Eastern Europe, the debates about national minority rights have also
become more moderate, for example, in the cases of Hungarian minority in
has less to do with national claims and more with cultural, and especially reli-
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Ethnic and national claims are also closely connected to the issues of self-deter-
cited above the ethnic and national claims have self-determination, ultimately
some issues pertaining to political autonomy that are not directly connected
no autonomy and thus is thoroughly dependent on the decision-making in the
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Emerging problems aecting borders
Monitoring of media and observations in the case study countries suggest a
is a strong tendency in to medialize the refugee crisis, which spectacularizes
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borders of the EU, particularly Mediterranean and South-East Europe, there are
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themselves, but more with the perceived unfairness of the proposed quota
system, which is especially opposed in Central and Eastern European countries,
and the failure of the EU to deal with it have given rise to Euroscepticism and
In the Mediterranean, where the issues of refugees and more generally forced
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ders; however, because of the perils of the sea-crossing which results in many
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iterranean becomes the space where humanitarian and securitarian discourses
with its neighbours in controlling the borders is becoming even more impor-
success, in the case of Morocco, where Morocco has received privileged access
on Middle Eastern migrants between the EU operates according to a similar
borders with Turkey
The rise of radicalism and violence on the borders is also related to the refu-
been radicalization of right-wing groups in Europe itself, mostly in Central and
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portant issue is the so-called Ukrainian crisis, following the annexation of Crimea
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There is considerable strengthening of border controls from the Ukrainian side,
restrictions on crossing the border by Russian men, and these actions are in
contrast with the previous practices of open border that used to be crossed on
concerns with security were expressed in Finland, where the Ukrainian crisis was
interpreted as a collapse of multi-polar world, and the Finnish-Russian border
became seen not simply as EU’s external border, but as a civilizational bound-
Further away from Russia’s borders, in Bulgaria, the Ukrainian crisis led to a
separation of discourses into pro-Russian and pro-EU strands, and a raising
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beginning, it was perceived as an outcome of intervention of multitude of play-
These interpretations pointed to a new perception of Ukraine’s border as an
external border of the EU, and can thus be taken as a case of rebordering from
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selves separated by new division line, as Armenia joined Eurasian Economic
complicating relations between the two neighbouring countries
Borders as Constructions
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of UK-Ireland border, an active reconceptualization of a national border as an
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EU and interpret the developments as part of the UK-Ireland peace process or
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promoting of cross-border cooperation, does not necessarily lead to removal
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ferent as German-Polish and Polish-Russian border and the metropolitan area
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ings has been the lack of understanding of similarity between border practices
Russian citizens frequently cross the border in Kaliningrad region, Russians do
so much more frequently, and the main goal for them is shopping for all kinds
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action across Polish-Ukrainian border is similarly asymmetrical, with Ukrainians
crossing mostly for reasons of work and study, while Polish visit Ukraine for
Everyday experiences of borders vary greatly according to various groups of
active in cross-border cooperation and interaction, while mental barriers re-
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ian-Tunisian border, where the second generation of Tunisian migrants have
all our case studies had been active in exploiting the economic opportunities
cross-border activities were fading away, as was the case with Russian-Ukraini-
In terms of narrative construction, the opening of the borders and increased
interaction does lead to more multi-vocal perspective and can help to change
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been the communication via various technological means, without physically
studies, our research, especially in the Polish-Ukrainian case, demonstrated that
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level of discourses and narratives, they play an important role in medializing
discourses or challenge it by creating alternative, counter-hegemonic narra-
Linkages between Traditional and Post-Traditional Borders
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Consequently, it is more relevant to speak not of the continuum between the
concept of borderscapes that we employ is the main conceptual tool that links
by more permanent immigration following the restrictions on migration intro-
cases, the constructed symbolic borders between femininities and masculinities
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ible in the narratives of immigrant LGBT resistance to established norms in host
and diasporic communities as well as in the narratives of inter-generational
experiences of the border, and often the role of family and relationality may
be more easily addressed in women-authored narratives of border and cross-
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ally and has a particular role in the making of diasporic identity and migrant
subjectivity – as our analysis of the role of food in autobiographical writing
shows, it is a link with the past and serves as a means to reconstruct and main-
young people were much more active in cross-border interaction, and they
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strengthening of what used to be fully open administrative borders between
practically open, until recently, border between Russia and Ukraine to closed
border between Armenia and Azerbaijan, many older people remained nos-
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Tunisian migrants in Sicily had developed multiple identities and belonging to
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everyday practices was the petty trade of military gear on the Polish-Ukrainian
border – whereby a peaceful border gets temporarily transformed into an in-
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political changes of the crisis in Ukraine, travel for shopping still continues and
university in Kaliningrad, while at the same time it is cheaper than studying in
distance and outsourcing of border control functions to North African states
In the CEE region, very little semblance of what might be called “cosmopolitan”
implement ‘Europeanized’ identities were usually met with local resistance, and
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ception we observed was young cultural and functional elites, who underlined
kinship or cultural similarity in the border regions certainly helped to soften
betweenness in relation to the cultures in which they are immersed, which can
In the post-Soviet space, Russia has stressed the importance of ‘compatriots’
and ‘Russian speaking’ people, who continue to live in the countries of for-
of this identity are far-reaching, as the concept of Russkii Mir is also a corner-
observed in the case of Eastern Ukraine, and Transnistria where pro-Russian
orientations continue to shape perceptions of borders, even in the context
well as in Gibraltar suggests a positive impact in increasing in daily interaction
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expectations that cross-border interaction and the EU can have positive impact
147
in Transnistria, the regular cross-border interaction has not led to any progress
Top-down Europeanization and cross-border cooperation initiatives have had
down policies were partially resisted by both elites, who sought to protect their
privileges, and populations, who opposed the encroachment on their under-
quickly turned into Euroscepticism and short-term re-bordering with the on-
Slobozhanschina Euroregion as well as cross-border cooperation projects in
the Russian-Finnish border, the withdrawal of funding at the end of the pro-
Kaliningrad region, the cooperation continues with the involvement of local
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metropolitan border areas, such as Greater Geneva and Lille-Kortjik-Tournai,
despite high level of functional integration that is supported by political and
These activities usually take place at more peaceful borders, and can give rise to
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case, with the strengthening of state control, the funding from Scandinavian
countries, which used to sustain this collaboration, has become unwelcome,
and the artists who were engaged in this collaboration have been marginalized
Policy Options and Scenarios
In considering future developments and possible policy responses it is impor-
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EU’s top-down policies and initiatives were able to engineer debordering and
promote interaction across national borders, not least by mobilizing local civil
imaginaries of top-down EU domination of the border interaction have been
At the same time, EU should take more seriously the feelings of those who
resist debordering and emphasize their national, as opposed to European, be-
has potential of destabilizing the process of debordering and can lead to a rise
of xenophobic discourses and movements, even in rather prosperous and well
and related functional integration, national borders remain strong markers of
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frastructures, enhancing labour market integration, resolving negative exter-
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tive deterritorialization, there is a need to recode the state border as an object
of recognition able to promote a shared sense of place and belonging
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es, such as in the Mediterranean, EU’s response to migration across the sea has
from a distance and outsourcing of policing of EU’s borders to neighbouring
countries such as Morocco and Turkey has failed to resolve the problems of mi-
more committed EU, which would not only promote the Eurocentric vision but
a policy shift would also require broadening the spectrum of actors involved,
grasping the dialogic nature of bordering processes and imaginaries, as well as
the tension between institutional formal modes of political agency and social
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to acknowledge that the current arrangement is asymmetric and puts unjustly
redistributes costs, and puts security and the humanitarian aspects of migration
149
The EU’s geopolitical involvement in Eastern neighbourhood, particularly in
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East Europe this involvement has led to rising Euroscepticism, and thus threat-
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pean integration project Eastern Europe in the context of an ongoing military
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EU, most recently through an Association Agreement, suggests a need for a
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ated and involve close interaction between those countries that have moved
further in the process of association with the EU, such as Ukraine, Moldova and
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tory leads to increasing tensions with Russia, which in turn lead to rising secu-
to its own security; with particular regards to the borders this commitment is
At the same time, EU has important, and yet not fully tapped potential in con-
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tine to Transnistria to Nagorno-Karabakh EU is perceived as an honest bro-
impacts of this support may be less obvious and less immediate, they can have
In the sphere of cultural production, the EU can facilitate the role of cultural
production in despectacularizing narratives of border crises presented in the
can bring more wide-ranging narratives into public debate, reducing the im-
ethical ways of making individual experiences of border-crossing accessible in
to border-crossers, but should include wider range of actors, such as bureau-
through further research the memory and utopia dimension of migrant bor-
der-crossing, including collective and individual memories of migration and of
Concluding Observations
territories and the notion that borders are physical outcomes of political, social
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cordingly, international relations take place between sovereign governments
where a perceived set of unifying attributes and features is gradually replaced
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separating container boxes is largely a representation of political elites, because
These can be conceptualized as institutional vs interpersonal levels, or hierar-
151
level is represented most obviously by the EU, with its policies of de-bordering
within the Union, cross-border cooperation initiatives both within the EU and
with the neighbourhood, and cooperation with neighbourhood countries in
for example national and local authorities, and local vs national and interna-
of the border-making process can sometimes complement or be at odds with
both the political and business elites have very positive views about open bor-
der, some groups of population and some populist movements have been
people, and population alike support softening and opening of the border with
Poland, while federal authorities in Moscow are more concerned with issues of
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emerge around border contexts and that connect the realm of high politics
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thinking about the border and bordering processes not only on the border, but
also beyond the line of the border, beyond the border as a place, beyond the
landscape through which the border runs, and beyond borderlands with their
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‘the complexity and vitality of, and at, the border’, emphasising its status as a
landscape of resistance to the simple exploitation of territory by the nation-
152
As borderscapes, borders in fact cannot be reduced to instruments of terms
must be expanded to include what is happening every day at the EU’s external
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ment and blocking and in which borders are produced by social institutions
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scends the panoptic gaze implicit in border spectacles as it follows the discur-
sive and performative construction of migration, refugee crises and their con-
Eurocentrism because migrants and refugees become actors and protagonists
artistic expressions of borders and border crossings can be regarded as expres-
politics of a new in-between identity that dwells in a borderscape where the
process involves various individuals, groups, and institutions on state and local
the borderscape is to return to the question of who decides where the border
References
Economy’, Theory, Culture &
Geopolitics 20
Geopolitics
Borderscapes: Hidden Geographies and Politics at Territory’s Edge.